Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 2016

EF0 tornado, Marion Oaks, Florida, July 23, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.9 miles across Marion County on July 23, 2016, touching down at 9:00 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
July 23, 2016
Touchdown
9:00 PM EDT (01:00 UTC)
Lifted
9:01 PM EDT (01:01 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.9 miles (1.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Marion County
Touchdown point
28.965, -82.188
Lift-off point
28.970, -82.174
Record number
1607231900-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Sea breeze convection sparked more discrete convection across inland areas compared to recent days with dry air in the mid level limiting coverage of showers and storms, however the dry air did increase strong downdraft potential. A cluster of severe storms drifted northward from central Florida across southern Marion county, where a brief EF0 tornado impacted the Marion Oaks neighborhood during the evening hours.

Significant tree damage occurred in the Marion Oaks Subdivision along SW 36th Avenue Road, Marion Oaks Blvd, SW 39th Court, and toward SW 30th Avenue. Eyewitness reports indicated that the tornado remained elevated at tree top level with little ground contact. Some branches were stripped of bark, but most damage occurred to tops of the trees.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:45 UTC01:14 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningJAX

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:36 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z

1.0 hours before the tornado, 142 km from the path. July 24, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2016-07-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 549 joules per kilogram, CIN -56, lifted condensation level 1039 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 2016-07-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
549 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-56 J/kg
Surface CAPE
850 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1039 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
31 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

11.0 hours after it, 142 km from the path. July 24, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2016-07-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 817 joules per kilogram, CIN -43, lifted condensation level 884 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 2016-07-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -8 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 9 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
817 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-43 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1181 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
884 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-8 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

The VIllages (VVG), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:15 UTC89.673.4 1011.9
23:35 UTC8673.4 1012.2
23:55 UTC82.473.4 1012.5
00:15 UTC80.668 1012.5
00:35 UTC78.871.6 1012.5
00:55 UTC78.869.8 1012.9
01:15 UTC78.868 1013.2
01:35 UTC80.669.8 1013.9
01:55 UTC78.873.4 1013.9
02:15 UTC75.273.4 1013.5BR
02:35 UTC75.271.6 1014.2
02:55 UTC75.273.4 1014.2

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Tampa radar (KTBW), 142 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:00 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG11 Ssw SantosMarion, FLTREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ALONG SW 36TH AVENUE ROAD IN THE MARION OAKS AREA. THE TIME OF DAMAGE WAS BASED ON RADAR.
01:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 Sw SantosMarion, FLTREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ALONG MARION OAKS BLVD. THE TIME OF DAMAGE WAS BASED ON RADAR.
01:00 UTCTORNADO 011 Ssw SantosMarion, FLTREES WERE BLOWN DOWN ALONG SW 36TH AVENUE ROAD IN THE MARION OAKS AREA. THE TIME OF DAMAGE WAS BASED ON RADAR. A MARION COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT STORM SURVEY AND REPORTS FROM EXPERIENCED UTILITY CREWS INDICATE A TORN

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 23, 2016

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 234:05 PM CDTEF1Buchanan, IA0.125
July 234:06 PM CDTEF1Delaware, IA0.125$5,000
July 234:18 PM CDTEF1Delaware, IA0.210
July 234:46 PM CDTEF0Dubuque, IA0.825

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.